Running Toward Hope
It’s natural for your alarm system to be screaming, especially when your life is seemingly so out of control (though control is merely an illusion).
In times like these, some become awash with ineffectual emotions, thoughts, and actions. Don’t let that be you.
Let’s pause, while together, we look at the operational features of the human mind to determine whether you have a choice to rest on the side of the unhelpful or helpful.
Bogged Down With Negativity
Are you thinking, I’m dealing with reality. There’s no pessimism in my thinking. A quick look into the inner workings of the brain may have you changing your mind. Psychologists tell us that human beings have negativity biases, which has you giving more weight to the “less than” aspects in your life. Why? It appears, and research confirms, unconstructive occurrences have more influence over you as well as takes up way more landscape in your brain. This condition has you spending more of your time agitating over or remembering all that has gone wrong or is amiss.
You don’t have to dwell on the negative. The choice to turn the page of your life’s storybook to concentrate on your wins rests in your hands. And there’s a slew of benefits should you determine to do so. Hopeful thoughts, according to Barbara Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina, create value as they become a dynamic cognitive, motivational system functioning for you. Such mental feedback has you going after more substantial outcomes, which develops into self-fulfilling prophecies.
Worry Has Left You Reeling
It’s challenging to find anything encouraging in today’s topsy-turvy, upside-down, uncertain world. It has you circling the drain over your dim… dim… dim future. You’ve trapped yourself, focusing on all your concerns and anxieties. Leading the way with this damaging emotion leaves you existing in unconstructive conjecture as though real. Interestingly enough, hope is the opposite side of the same coin—the positive side! Before you decide which emotion you choose to establish your future upon, it’s time to investigate HOPE.
An attitude of hope has a long history of improving everywhere you put your mind and hand. Charles R. Snyder, Ph.D., a psychologist at the University of Kansas and a pioneer of hope research, theorizes it has three components: goals, agency, and pathways. Put simply. You can shape your life — the belief that you can make things happen, as well as the motivation to reach the desired outcome. Wow! That sounds like a superb underpinning for success in tough times!
Studies confirm that hope:
- - Connects to your will and determination, encouraging you to achieve your goals.
- - Psychologically, it stands head and shoulder above any other mental resource such as confident self-talk and optimism.
- - Facilitates a mindset for establishing strategic direction more robust than you might typically produce.
- - It supports you to prosper in every area of your life.
Embedded within either worry or hopefulness is a presumed future. Isn’t it time to take on the mantle of hope?
Especially as dormant periods, such as we’re experiencing currently, are an occasion for reinvention and renewal. So, what do you judge would provide the best support for you—worry as opposed to hope? In my mind, the answer is self-evident.
If you agree, begin valuing this as a period of germination where the seeds of all your giftedness, talents, and expertise will emerge in unimaginable ways. Think of this interlude as the foundation for your future. Today is much like winter, a time of darkness so essential for the coming of spring. Emergence is a miraculous time where magnificent color, and energy, and beauty burst into life.
Unfortunately, if you decide to remain frozen in negativity and worry, anything constructive emerging is doubtful. Now with hope, well, you have an emotion supporting you with a proven track record as your anticipated reality. Begin running toward hope. It will turn your life around in a convincing way!
Related: Four Tips to Re-Surface From This Space in History as a Better Person